Legal Brief for November, 2011

Court of Queen's Bench Lawsuits

If you have a legal claim that seeks recovery of an amount that is greater than $25,000.00, or which deals with builder's lien issues or issues relating to land, your claim must be brought in what is known as the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta.  This Court is known as a "superior court", which means that it handles all of the major legal claims that arise in that jurisdiction.  Judges for the Court of Queen's Bench are appointed by the Government of Canada, whereas judges for the Provincial Court are appointed by the Province of Alberta.

The history of the name of the Court is interesting.  It originated in England in the late 12th century and was literally a Court presided over by the King or Queen of the day.  It would travel around England hearing both civil and criminal cases.  Litigants would literally come to the "King's Bench" or the "Queen's Bench" as the case may be, to plead their cases.  Although the monarch of the day ceased presiding over this Court during the 1400's, the Court continued to exist for several hundred years.  Competing courts also developed in England as the centuries went along.  These additional courts, known as the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of Chancery, existed as separate entities until the 1870's in England, when all three were combined into one "superiour" or "high" court.  As Canadian provinces were at the time still very closely tied to the British system, our Court system adopted similar formats and names.

The Court of Queen's Bench is a much more complicated system than the Provincial Court.  While it is not required to be represented by a lawyer in Queen's Bench, it is generally recommended that you do so in order to ensure that your rights are fully protected and represented to the Court.

A lawsuit in this Court is initiated by filing a document known as a Statement of Claim.  There is one standard filing fee, which is $200.00.  As in the Provincial Court, once you file your Statement of Claim, you are required to serve it on the Defendant.  If the Defendant does not dispute your claim, you can in most cases, as in Provincial Court, obtain what is known as a Default Judgment from the Court.  If the Defendant does decide to defend your claim, it will file what is known as a Statement of Defence.  After that is filed, the parties must then initiate further action in the lawsuit by themselves - the Court does not assist in the process as it does in the Provincial Court.

You can obtain further information by going to the Alberta Courts website at: www.albertacourts.ab.ca and then clicking on the Court of Queen's Bench button and then clicking on the appropriate button on the drop down menu that appears.

Having filed a lawsuit, in either level of Court, does not prevent you from trying to negotiate a settlement or resolution of it with the other side.  In fact, at least 90% of all cases that start out in the court system end up being settled before they reach trial.